Open Access to Research Articles Act Implementation Scenarios TF Charge

Open Access to Research Articles Act Implementation Scenarios Task Force

Background: Public Act 098-0295 or the “Open Access to Research Articles” Act requires that the University of Illinois (along with other public universities in Illinois) establish a Task Force to design a proposed policy (and, presumably, ultimately supporting systems and services) regarding open access for the scholarly articles produced at the University. The Act specifies a number of issues that the Task Force must consider when recommending such a policy. The Task Force must be put in place by January 2014, and the final report must be issued by January 2015. This Task Force will be named by the Board of Trustees later this year.

Charge:In order to inform the work of the campus level Task Force and to address specific questions asked in the Act about implementation and cost, the Open Access to Research Articles Act Implementation Scenarios Task Force will consider the technical, workflow, and resource requirements needed for the Library to best support an open access policy. Recognizing that we cannot predict the exact shape of such a policy, the task force is likely to need to suggest different strategies contingent on various different outcomes. The group will prepare a report that outlines potential workflows, technical infrastructure, and resource requirements to support an OA policy for the UIUC. Using common elements of OA policies implemented at other institutions[i], this group will consider:

How can the output of researchers best be identified?

Can we get the metadata describing the output via automated means or do we rely on a self-reporting and submission system? Or a combination?

How do we get the works themselves? What and how can we harvest works? Do we rely on a self-reporting and submission system? Or a combination?

What would the ingest process into IDEALS look like?

Assuming there is an opt-out or a waiver structure, what would that look like?

How do we report out what was ingested, waived, and what has yet to be ingested?

What are the training and documentation needs?

It will also be important to reflect on the resources needed to support the optimal configuration of services needed to support the policy. The task force will complete a draft of a report by November 2013, with a final report to the University Librarian by January 2014.

Membership:

The membership is meant to include both technical and subject expertise.

- Sarah Shreeves (Chair)

- MJ Han

- Tom Habing

- Bill Mischo

- Nancy O’Brien

- Kirstin Dougan

- Sarah Williams

- Vetle Torvik

[i] A helpful resource to consider is Ellen Duranceau and Sue Kriegsman’s chapter, “Implementing Open Access Policies Using Institutional Repositories” at http://www.ala.org/alcts/sites/ala.org.alcts/files/content/resources/papers/ir_ch05_.pdf.